Congressional vote set to curb NSA spying powers

The public backlash against the National Security Agency’s broad spying powers has apparently been greater than many in Washington had anticipated. The Guardian reports that the United States House of Representatives is set to vote on a new bipartisan proposal that would curb some of the powers that the NSA is now using under the Patriot Act. In particular, The Guardian says that the proposed amendment “ends authority for the blanket collection of records” such as cellphone metadata that the NSA has claimed it has the right to access in bulk without obtaining a search warrant. Even if the measure succeeds in the House, however, its fate is far from certain in the Senate and it’s likely that the White House will step up lobbying to oppose its inclusion in the annual defense appropriations bill.